The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! Buy a ticket to a ballgame today. Inside:
The Boys of Summer: Quirky pennant race hits stretch driveCongratulations to Major League Baseball, which finally gets the brightest American sports spotlight for the next few weeks after the World Cup wraps tomorrow. The second half is underway this weekend. I’ve found a contradiction in the first 97-ish games: This season has been a story of one expected thing surrounded by lots of the unexpected.Meanwhile, the year has taken on a bit of a last-night-before-the-end-of-the-world hue, with everyone aware that team owners will initiate a lockout of the players soon after the World Series. How long will it last? No clue. Will the sport’s economics have been transformed by then? Great question. All that’s certain is the next few months will be high drama.The expected thing, which even casual fans have probably noticed: The Dodgers remain the Dodgers. The two-time reigning champs are 62-36. Shohei Ohtani is a Cy Young vote-worthy pitcher who’s having a “down” year at the plate and might only hit a paltry 40 homers. In recent years, the Padres have kept the NL West race interesting. Not this time, with L.A. 11 1/2 games clear of the second-place Diamondbacks by the break.The unexpected thing: Well, it’s most other things. Here’s the situation, with figures dated to the start of this weekend’s series:
